Next Yakuza Game to Be Revealed by SEGA on August 24th

The Yakuza series now has two entries that SEGA has failed to localize into English, and a third has been confirmed to be on the way. A new teaser site showing off the next game has gone live, teasing a full reveal on Aug. 24 at 9:00 p.m. Japan time.

Not too much is known at this point other than that it is in development for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. SEGA also hinted that the game is not going to be a spin-off like Yakuza: Dead Souls or Yakuza: Restoration, meaning that we will most likely be returning to the mean streets of Japan as Kazuma Kiryu and friends in Yakuza 6.

In America, Yakuza 5 has yet to be localized into English, leaving fans very skeptical about the future of the series in the West. The offbeat Yakuza: Restoration, which takes the characters back in time to the final days of the samurai,also has not been localized most likely because of the vast knowledge of Japanese history needed to understand the references.

Between Yakuza fans and Dragon Quest fans, I don’t know whether it’s SEGA or Square Enix who is giving its audience the bigger shaft. I realize that translations take a lot of work, but these are the publishers which trample all over fan translators who do their jobs for free. If not them, then who? Excellent Japanese games will find a way in this day and age, with or without publisher support. The pressure is on to make it happen.